The following is a translated text from the President of the Autonomous Municipality of Chenalhó. The declaration is in response to accusations by the Mexican government that displaced Zapatista communities are refusing humanitarian assistance. In this context, this somewhat indignant declaration goes some way towards explaining the complexity of providing aid in conflictive areas of Chiapas.

The autonomous municipalities, of which there are now over 30, were established by Zapatista communities when the government failed to implement the San Andres Accords signed between the EZLN and the federal government towards the end of 1996. If passed into legislation, these accords would have granted a significant degree of autonomy to indigenous communites intent on gaining recognition for their unique form of social organization:

San Pedro Chenalhó Autonomous Municipality of Chenalhó in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico January 10, 1998

To the people of Mexico
To the people and governments of the World
To the local, national and international press
To national and international civil society
To the indigenous people of Chiapas and Mexico

Today, January 10, 1998, in the presence of the self appointed Governor, Roberto Albores Guillen, we, the almost 8,000 displaced indigenous Tzotziles in the Municipality of Chenalhó, and in the company of our brothers from the different communities of this Municipality, would like to bring the following points to the attention of these government representatives and public opinion:

FIRST: it is the Federal Government of Ernesto Zedillo de Ponce Leon, and the State Government with all its officials, that is keeping us in these inhuman conditions. There are thousands of us displaced people living here like animals in this pigsty, between the mud and the open countryside, spied on day and night by thousands of soldiers, state security forces, judicial police from the Attorney General's Office, with all their weapons, armored cars, tanks, helicopters, and war planes.

It is the government that has always kept us marginalized and forgotten, because they have never resolved our old problems; it is the government that wants to tire us out with hunger and misery; it is the government that wants to make us surrender by threatening, assassinating and massacring our indigenous brothers; it is the government that wants us to stop fighting for our rights and supporting the EZLN in their just struggle. What the government is doing is carrying out a clear strategy of counterinsurgency; we see and understand this clearly, as do our people.

But the government thinks that we, the indigenous people of Chenalhó, are stupid; the government thinks that we are supporting the EZLN through ignorance and manipulation. But the government is wrong: we, the indigenous people of Chenalhó, are not manipulated as they and their federal soldiers say. We struggle according to our own will, our own awareness, our own decisions. We are forced to fight because of the hunger and the misery and because we are already tired of so much marginalization and injustice; we are tired of receiving nothing but crumbs and deceit from the government - that's why we no longer believe the government because they only want to silence us and make us conform with lies and promises.

We, the indigenous people, are no longer going to trust in the Federal and State governments, and even less in their federal soldiers that surround and besiege our communities with their tanks, armored cars, helicopters, planes and weapons of war.

The living conditions of the thousands of indigenous people that find themselves in this place are such, that it is not enough to supply us with some food, a few sheets of corrugated iron and a few meager pieces of clothing to resolve our grave situation and satisfy our hunger. These little presents that the government is handing out will run out in a few days, while the poverty, hunger and illness will remain with us for ever. The roots of our marginalization and all the injustices that we suffer have not ended, because the originators of all our injustice and suffering are the bad governments that continue governing and manipulating the people, and taking advantage of the poverty of the indigenous; those governments continue to enrich themselves through the sweat, labor and death of the poor and the indigenous.

The root of all our problems is the lack of democracy, liberty, freedom, independence and social justice in the country. That's why the state and federal governments have always kept the indigenous people forgotten and isolated, and have never dealt with their just demands while the people continue to die of hunger and misery. So when the government arrives and to put its best face forwards, offering indigenous people their hypocritical and miserable assistance, while they are already dying of hunger, misery and illness, the government first has to massacre many of us to justify its entrance into our communities, but accompanied by thousands of soldiers equipped with tanks, helicopters and war planes.

SECOND: we, the indigenous men, women, and children, young and old, have a dignity that the government doesn't have; that's why we reject and despise the PRI governments - because they are hypocrites, liars, manipulators, and murderers of poor indigenous people.

THIRD: that's why we ask that the government, if it wishes to give its help to the displaced people, that it does so through national and international civil society organizations. That way, they [the NGOs] will be able to look at it and see if what the government is giving is OK before they deliver it to the displaced people; but we are not going to receive anything directly from the government, its officials, or its federal soldiers, because their hands are stained with indigenous blood.

FOURTH: that's why we're asking the national and international civil society to give us a hand to receive and review what the government is offering, and that afterwards they deliver it to the displaced people.

FIFTH: but also so that the government understands if we receive their miserable assistance, we are not going to conform, neither are they going to be able to silence us, nor even less make us give up our struggle for freedom: we will not rest until we have achieved our objective. We will not forget or betray the blood of our fallen.

We will win!

Representatives of the displaced communities and the Autonomous Municipal Council.

Domingo Perez Paciencia.